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Week 138

You are on Week 139

Week 140

Every week we will be starting a new Story Telling competition - with great prizes! The current prize is 2000 NP, plus a rare item!!! This is how it works...

We start a story and you have to write the next few paragraphs. We will select the best submissions every day and put it on the site, and then you have to write the next one, all the way until the story finishes. Got it? Well, submit your paragraphs below!

Story One-Hundred and Thirty-Nine Ends August 8th

"Get back here, you little thief!" the Elephante
guards roared, as Keena dashed along the street, grasping the stolen tchea
fruit firmly to her chest. She darted into an abandoned building, up the
stairs, and to a window on the second floor. Panting, the Kyrii looked down
to the street below, where more guards were patrolling. A crash alerted
her that the guards had entered the building, and were quickly making their
way up the stairs.

Across the way from the window was an awning underneath a
window. If I can just jump to that awning... she thought. The door to
the room exploded as the guards charged in. Without the time to judge the
jump, Keena had to rely on luck. She scampered onto the window ledge
and made a tremendous leap...

The awning was farther than she had thought. Flailing her arms, Keena managed
to grab the edge with one paw. He feet were dangling only inches over a
guard's head! If he even glanced up... Keena gulped. Across the way, the
guards in the building were now notching their arrows. Desperately, she
tried to swing her other arm up to grip the awning. A ripping noise came
from the corner of the fabric. She froze. Any more movement, and it would
surely rip and deposit her on the head of the guard below. She heard the
guards in the window straining their bows for a shot. Panicked, the Kyrii
racked her brains for a means of escape, when suddenly...

A furry paw grabbed her wrist and pulled her in through the window above
the awning. She only caught a glimpse of the other Kyrii, before he
knocked her to the floor. Arrows zipped over their heads, and she heard
them clank against the stone walls.

"Come on, this way," he told her. She followed the mysterious Kyrii
through a trap door on the lower floor. It led into the sewers. "It
may not smell that great, but it can lead us to safety. My name's
Stan by the way, what's yours?"

"Oh, my name's Keena. Thanks for saving me back there."

"No problem! Us thieves need to stick together! I haven't seen you
around here before; you must be new."

"Yes, I just arrived last week," explained Keena.

"Stick with me for awhile, and I'll show you the ropes of this town,"
said Stan.

"Really? Thanks! Hey, um, where are we going now?"

"To my hideout... here we are," Stan said, helping her up a small ladder that
lead out of the sewers and into his hideout.

It looked like an abandoned building on the outskirts of town, but s
eemed comfortable. A fine rug decorated the floor. "You must be doing
pretty well for yourself, Stan," said Keena, turning towards him.

...didn't actually steal any of this stuff..." he said, rubbing his head
with embarrassment. "It was actually my big brother. I'm still kind
of a small fry. All I really do is distract the guards for him, or steal
a bit of food... nothing major." Stan said, glancing at the floor.

"I understand. It was sort of that way with me in my hometown,"
Keena said, reassuring him as she sat down on a comfortable looking chair. "That's
why I moved over here. I thought I was ready to head out on my own."
Keena shook her head, thinking back to her recent predicament.
"Guess I proved myself wrong."

"It wasn't your fault." Stan said. "You don't really know this town,
so you weren't sure where to run and hide." Keena smiled at him.

"Stan!" A voice called from outside. The door burst open with a
loud bang, and in sauntered a really dirty Lupe. "I got it!" he
shouted, reaching into a pouch on his side. He pulled out the most elaborately
decorated key that Keena had ever seen. "Isn't it lovely?" he said,
rubbing the key between his grimy paws and kissing it with a loud smack.

"What is it?" Keena asked as she moved from her seat toward the curious
spectacle. The Lupe's eyes widened as he finally noticed her.

"What do we have here?" he asked, turning towards Stan.

"Klept, this is my new friend Keena," he said, motioning to her.
"Keena, Klept."

"Nice to meet you, Klept," she said, extending her paw.

"Likewise," he said distractedly. "Stan, why'd you have to bring
over friends on a night as important as this one? I could have sworn
I specifically told you no friends." He waved the key in Stan's face,
as if he were a teacher threatening his student with a ruler.

"She's new in town, and was about to get into some major trouble... what else
was I supposed to do?"

"Fine, fine, your friend can stay... but she has to come with us."

"Um..." Keena said, breaking in before Stan could reply. "Where
exactly are you two going?"

"Why, to perform the biggest heist of the century. We're going to
steal from...

Author: firesonjaDate: 04 August

...the Royal Family of Sakhmet. Those royals will never know what hit
them. At their palace, they have gold and treasures all over the place;
I heard that Princess Vyssa has everything in gold." Klept used his paws
as he began to name off items. "Solid gold mirror, brush, bed,
rug, knife, and paintbrush. I am sure there are a million more, but that's
just one of the princesses that lives in Sakhmet Palace. We have Princess
Sankara, with her exotic treasurers from Khamtef; not to mention
the vault of Neopoints and other little treasures hidden underground.
We'll make millions of Neopoints... no, billions of Neopoints, and we'll
be famous. We'll be known as the ones who pulled off a heist on the
all-powerful Royal Family." Klep continued rambling on; his eyes were
gleaming with greed.

"I don't know about the city, but a palace is always heavily guarded. How do
you plan to get past the guards? Let alone break into a vault?" Keena asked.

"You think I didn't know that? I planned this down to the last detail...
nothing will go wrong!" Klept snapped. "Being new in town, you've probably
never heard of King Coltzan III, have you?" Keena shook her head no.
"His shrine is on the other side of river. It's the anniversary of his
death, and there is big festival that is going to be held in his honor. Every
member of the Royal Family will be there, not to mention the whole
Royal Court. Ever since the murder of Coltzan, every member of the Royal
Family must be accompanied by guards wherever they go. The staff of guards
will be less than normal."

"There are still going to be guards," Keena pointed out. "How do you plan
to get past them and break into the vault?"

"This key is the key to the vault," Stan said. "We don't have to break in;
we just turn the key and take what we want."

"How are you planning for us to get inside?" Keena asked.

"With the help of a new Kyrii thief we just met." Klept replied.

"What do I have to do?" Keena asked.

"Don't make her do anything dangerous, Klept. She's still a rookie." Stan
advised.

"Oh shut up, Stan. Don't give me advice on my own plan," Klept snapped, before
turning to Keena and beginning to whisper her instructions. "Keena, this is
what you have to do..."

Author: roxycaligirl101Date: 05 August

...Keena gulped and shook her head in understanding. "Yeah, I... I think...
I mean, yes I can do that." she stuttered out.

"Good!" Klept bellowed out, not giving Keena time to rethink her part in
his plan. "We should get going right away, before it's too dark to
navigate the sewers. Stan," the Lupe suddenly rounded on his little brother.
"If you mess this up like the last time, you know what's gonna have to happen,
right?"

Stan, hearing his brother say this, instantly broke out in a cold sweat.
"I remember, Klept." he muttered, shuffling his feet on the dirty floor.
Without giving Keena time to question what had just passed between the two
brothers, Stan hurried after Klept, who was already a fair ways ahead of
them on his way to the sewers.

* * * * *

Keena shivered as the cold night air rapped its fingers around her small
frame. She looked to the moon--her only source of light. It had moved
considerably during the time she had been standing outside the palace in the
shadows of the night. Still, she dared not make a move until given the signal
by Klept. The Kyrii looked across the river, where she
could see the festival lights as she slowly followed in step to the upbeat
music that was drifting over. "For once," Keena thought aloud, "I wonder
what it would be like not to be a thief."

"That's crazy talk." The sudden voice made Keena jump. She looked up to
where the familiar voice had come from, and into the grinning face of Stan.
He was hanging over one of the parapets of the castle, using his belt as an
anchoring rope and cutting quite a comical scene in the night. "Klept says
it's time that you do your part." His tone instantly grew serious and icy,
as he remembered what might happen to him if this plan fell through.

"Um... okay," she said, readying herself. "Tell Klept he can count on me." However,
Stan was already gone, having returned to his lookout spot. "Okay Keena, if there
was ever a time to prove yourself as a thief, this is it," she reassured
herself. "All you have to do is allow yourself to be brought inside, then make an excuse for
all the guards to enter the one room..." she said, her voice trailing off as she neared
the castle gates.

* * * * *

The two Elephante guards stood stock-still as they watched for signs of
movement in the darkness. "Lancer," one of them spoke up, "what are we
kidding ourselves for? We know that everyone in the entire desert is at the
Shrine tonight, so why do we bother--" he was cut off by a loud wailing
sound that filled the night air.

"What in Coltzan's name was that?" Lancer asked, bewildered. The
wailing continued as a dark shape could be seen pulling itself along on
its stomach, up to the guards. It was Keena.

"Miss? Miss! Are you all right?" The other guard called out as he ran up
to her. "What has happened to you?"

"Ohhh..." the Kyrii continued to wail. "It's too horrible to talk about.
The festivities were going so well, and then..." she stopped talking
and pretended to faint.

"QUICK!" Lancer yelled. "Get her inside the palace, she seems to know
something!" The two guards hurriedly picked her up, failing
to notice the large Lupe that stepped out from the shadows to
follow the trio through the now-unguarded, unlocked gates.

* * * * *

Keena had been seated on a large couch, in an even larger room. Around
her stood 20 guards, all waiting for their questions to be answered.
She had stalled as long as she could about coming around from her "faint",
but now it was time to face her worried audience. "Oh! It was so awful!"
she began, picking up from where she had left off.

"Please, you must continue!" a voice called out from the crowd around her.

"The Princess herself told me not to say anything unless all the faithful
guards of her palace were present." She cringed at how fake her words
sounded, but the guards were either too worried or too proud at being
complimented by their princess to notice.

"We're all here!" a guard announced. "This is all that was left on the night of the festival!"

Keena suppressed a smile. This was going to be easier than they had
thought. She got up and paced the room in mock worry, making sure that
as she positioned herself in front of the door, the guards followed her
circle and shuffled opposite of her. Everything was going perfectly.

Keena made eye contact with one of the guards as he met her gaze and
stared back. Slowly his face grew into a twisted smile, and Keena grew
cold as she realized why he was looking at her. This was one of the
guards that had chased her earlier! Knowing her game was up, she thought
fast, and wasted no time in ducking out through the door. She shoved a spear
inside the handles, making it impossible to leave the room for the moment.

She had meant to trick the guards into thinking there was trouble at the
Shrine, so they would go over there and leave the palace empty. But now
that the guards knew there were thieves in the palace, they were sure to
pool all their strength and come after Keena.

The Kyrii cursed silently for letting herself be recognized. However,
there was no time for that; she had to warn Stan and Klept...

Author: lucki_duckiDate: 05 August

...however, Keena realized she had no idea where she was going.

Keena looked up and down the dim, empty hallway and felt a sinking
feeling. Of course, she hadn't been told how to get to the vault;
that hadn't been her part of the plan.

She started heading back towards the way she'd been carried in, her feet
padding softly on the stone floor as she ran. Keena's heart was thudding
so hard, she was sure it had to be making enough noise for them to hear
her all the way back at the Shrine.

She found herself in a large hall, with a high vaulted ceiling that
was lost in shadows. Yes, I go left here, she thought, and turned...
only to be faced with three exits. Which one had they brought her through?

She looked around the hall, as pangs of despair began uncurling in
the pit of her stomach. There were so many exits...

"I have to find and warn them," she murmured, reminding herself
of the task at hand. She picked an exit on the other side of the hall
and marched resolutely up to it, a look of grim determination on her
Kyrii face.

* * * * *

"We're gonna be rich!" Klept exclaimed, almost singing the words. He was
squirming with pleasure as he looked at the enormous vault door. It was
solid and impenetrable... unless you had the key.

Stan looked around uneasily. Something seemed wrong here. This was all
just... just...

"This is too easy," Klept said gleefully, giving voice to Stan's thoughts,
as he put the key into the ornate lock and turned it.

"Yeah, too easy," Stan agreed. "And I don't like it one bit."

"Oh don't be such a wet blanket!" Klept snapped. "Now, give me a hand
with this!"

Together they pushed the heavy door open. Stan felt a little disappointed
as he looked inside, for he had expected to see piles of great riches,
but the only thing to be seen was darkness.

Stan took a torch from the hallway behind them and together they entered,
peering into the shadows for a glimpse of the treasure. Stan's feeling
of unease only grew as they stepped further and further into the darkness.

Klept suddenly let out a whoop that echoed eerily all around. At the edge
of the pool of light cast by the torch was a glimmer of gold. The Lupe leapt
the remaining distance, falling to his knees by the treasure.
He began kissing and pulling it towards him with his greedy grabbing paws.

Stan, however, had stayed back. He was overwhelmed by the sudden feeling
that they were not alone. Then, as he stood there, he heard a scraping sound
from the shadows as something moved closer. Two large, orb-like eyes
(they must have each been at least as large as Stan's head) appeared in
the black, glowing with the reflected light of the torch...

Author: sephirah87Date: 06 August

..."Klept?" Stan whispered to his brother, grabbing hold of the Lupe's
shoulder. Those eyes, they were terrifying and beautiful at the same time.
A strange mixture... almost hypnotic. He was afraid to look away as they
grew ever closer.

"What is it?" Klept said, shaking Stan's paw off his shoulder and sounding annoyed,
as if Stan were interrupting this special moment between him and his riches
to tell him something unimportant.

"I think we should leave," Stan whispered. He was now staring at complete
darkness; the eyes were gone as quickly as they had appeared.

"Leave?!? We just got here!" Klept laughed, "Aww, is littow Stanley afwaid
of the dark?"

Ignoring Klept, Stan held his torch far out in front of him, but the eyes
did not appear again. Maybe he had imagined them. Yes... he'd been expecting
this to be more difficult, that's all

No. That wasn't all. He had seen something; he didn't know what it was,
but it was definitely there. No matter how much he tried to convince himself,
the uneasy feeling remained, eyes or no eyes.

"Honestly Stan, you're just like that Keena. Stop worrying! Can't you just
trust me?"

"I swear I saw something." Stan took another step into the darkness, holding
out the torch yet again and looking around him, but there wasn't anything
there. He turned back to his brother, expecting to hear the usual scold or
taunt.

Klept was gone, though.

* * * * *

"HOW DID I GET HERE???" Keena shouted to no one in particular. Angry and
frustrated, she turned away from the doors of the same room she had started
out in, the spear still keeping those guards locked inside.

Rubbing her eyes, she tried to think. If I were a vault, where would I be?
That was of no help, though. She still didn't know where to go. Soon enough,
she found herself wandering aimlessly down the hallway.

It could be worse, she told herself. At least the guards were still trapped,
it would certainly be more difficult if she had to maneuver her way to the
vault while they were searching for her. Keena sighed heavily as she came to
the end of the hallway. Go right this time, she thought

Shrugging, Keena took the right exit, hoping she would have better luck.
She'd barely entered the room when she heard a disturbing sound. It was
like someone calling for help...

Author: madmadmaddymadDate: 06 August

..."Stan?" Keena silently stood as still as she could.

"Help, somebody!" the voice called out. "Can anybody hear me? HELP!"

This time Keena was sure. "Stan, where are you?" she asked, but that was
obviously no good. Even if Stan DID tell her where he was, Keena
wouldn't be able to find him. "Stan, keep yelling... I'll follow your voice!"

With that, Keena took off in the general direction of Stan's voice, down
through the room and out a hallway on the other side.

"Keena?" the voice asked, with more than a measure of desperation. "Help!
Hurry, before it's too late!"

Just then, Keena found herself in front of a tall, wooden door.
She heard muted screams coming from behind it. Groping in the semi-darkness
for a handle, Keena felt the door swing open and she tumbled into the room.

The room was as black as pitch, except for two glowing orb-like eyes that
stared out at Keena from the darkness. A soft voice came from the mouth
that must have belonged to the eyes.

"Ah, so you must be Keena... the one that your friends have been
so eagerly telling me about. Now, I don't have many visitors, but young Klept
and Stan just barged into my little home without so much as an invitation.
That was quite rude of them, don't you think?"

All this time, Keena had been attempting to avoid the near-hypnotic, unblinking
stare of the two eyes. She decided to stare at the floor, even though she
couldn't see it in the icy darkness. "I-I'm sure that Klept and Stan meant you
no harm, but... well, I would like to know where they are."

"Yes? Well, I would like to tell you," said the voice.

With that, Keena was nearly blinded by a bright light that suddenly lit up the room.
As soon as her eyes adjusted, however, she saw that Stan and Klept were chained to the wall
opposite her.

"Stan! Klept!" she cried, rushing over to their writhing figures.

"No... not yet, young one," cooed the soft voice as its body reached out a
restraining arm. "They cannot see you, hear you, or speak to you."

Upon closer inspection, Keena saw that her friends had been gagged, blindfolded,
and had cotton stuffed in their ears.

"If this were not so utterly serious, I would think your methods of restraining
them were pretty comical," retorted Keena.

"Perhaps, but it gets the job done," replied the voice. "Now, did you not think
that my methods for bringing you here were quite ingenious?"

"I came here because Stan was crying for help," yelled Keena, still not looking
at the strange eyes or the body that belonged to them.

...She remembered the days of robbing houses with her sister,
a shadow Draik with unusually large, pale eyes named Kalanna. Her
eyes always frightened Keena.

Whenever they would go out on a job, ready to steal anyplace, anytime, anywhere, Kalanna
would turn to Keena with her terrible eyes and say,"You'd better not mess
this up. Or else. And remember... I know everything you're doing. I can see
everything."

Keena knew what would happen if she didn't do well; Kalanna had many methods
for punishing her. She would take Keena's food away for a week, maybe more...
or she would give Keena such a terrible thrashing that she would hardly be able
to lie down the following night.

"YES!" boomed Kalanna. "It's me!"

"How did you find me? You... you disappeared years ago," whispered Keena.

"Yes, well... I also could not resist the lure of Sahkmet Palace's treasures,
but the beast that used to guard this place was ancient and feeble. When I
entered this room, it... passed its curse onto me. Now I can never leave this
room of worthless treasure. It has also given me its handsome looks, wouldn't you
say so sister?"

The Draik beast spread its wings. Putrid black oil oozed from every pore. "Most of
the time it's quite boring here, but I sensed you coming, and was quite relieved to
have some... company." Her wicked eyes gleamed. "You can never escape me!
Remember, Keena..." Kalanna said evilly. "I know what you're doing... I can see everything!"

"NO!" Keena cried again. She crumpled to the floor, and Kalanna heard the sobbing
sounds that came from her. The Draik grinned, raising a hand to strike her,
when Keena jumped up and knocked Kalanna into the wall.

"You didn't think I came all this way without learning a couple
tricks, did you?" she cried...

Author: dreamgirl11dyDate: 07 August

...Fury raged in Keena like nothing she had ever felt before. It was as ugly as
Kalanna looked now, but felt so good to Keena, as though she had just opened
the door to a foul-smelling room, and all the stench was slowly oozing out.

"You've made me suffer all my life, Kalanna!!" Keena yelled, "Do you really
think I'm going to let you get away with it any more?"

Stunned for a moment, the horribly disfigured Kalanna stared blankly at Keena,
as if she couldn't quite comprehend what was being said to her.
"Now really, Weaky Kiki," oozed Kalanna in a trickly-sweet voice, recalling
the nickname she'd used to belittle her sister when she was mad, "I wouldn't want
for you to embarrass yourself in front of your friends... oh, right! They
can't see us." She smiled wickedly, "Well, let's just make this a little
more interesting."

With one swooping motion, Kalanna glided towards the bound and gagged
brothers, and removed their blindfolds whilst smearing black gunk all over
their faces.

Stan's eyes, upon seeing Keena, widened as he struggled harder and harder.
He shouted out something, but it was completely muffled.

Klept, on the other hand, strained his leg muscles to try and kick Kalanna,
but it was to no avail.

"That's much better, isn't it Weaky Kiki? Now these boys can see what an idiot
they have for a friend." Kalanna began to approach Keena slowly, the slime leaving
a trail behind her.

"Kalanna, evil like you doesn't deserve to live." Keena spat out, rrealizing that she was
stalling for time until she'd figured out what to do.

Kalanna cackled loudly and said, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing,
Kiki! Come on and show me some of those so-called moves you were so proud of earlier."

With that, Kalanna swooped towards Keena like a vulture and...

With a flash of inspiration, Keena suddenly remembered... the ummagine!!! Kalanna
was allergic to ummagines, and the fumes would sting anyone's eyes. Keena
smirked. The key to destroying this monster was held only in the memory of her sister.

As swift as a thief, Keena grabbed the ummagine from her back pocket, crushing
it slightly so that some of the flesh came out, then shoved a piece of
it at Kalanna's eyes...

"Y-You idiot!" Kalanna cried, revealing her eye. It was no longer large
and pale, but tiny and shriveled. Keena stared in triumph at her wounded
sister. She approached cautiously, then shoved the rest of the ummagine
in Kalanna's mouth.

"Hmph, it serves you right," Keena muttered, as her sister fell unconcious
to the ground. Keena turned towards Stan and Klept, who were staring back
incredulously. She smiled brightly, then began to untie their bounds.

"Thanks alot Keena," mouthed Stan, removing the black gunk that covered his
face. "That was some idea you had there earlier."

"Yeah, yeah, enough with the reunions," Klept yelled. "Let's go grab us some
treasure!" The two Kyriis nodded, then began stuffing their backpacks full of
all the gold they could carry. They'd only cleared about a third of the treasure,
but were satisfied nonetheless. Keena took one last look at her mutated sister
before leaving the vault.

"Goodbye, Kalanna," whispered Keena. She ran out of the vault to catch up with
Stan and Klept. They quietly manoeuvred through the hallways, trying to find
the exit. It was about half an hour before Keena came across a familiar sight.

"Hey, that's the room I locked the guards in," she said, pointing to the spear.

"So, should we release them?" Klept asked. The three of them contemplated this
idea for a moment.

"Nah, the Royal Family will do that once they come back," replied Stan. Klept
and Keena agreed, and they hopped happily to the exit.

* * * * *

"I'll get you this time, thief!" roared the Elephante guard, chasing after
Keena. It had been a week since Keena, Klept, and Stan robbed the Royal Family
of Sakhmet. She'd decided to go out on her own now, and things had been
going smoothly... until today.

"Ha, this'll be the last of your robbing days," laughed the guard as he cornered
Keena. Suddenly, a puntec fruit was dropped from above, slamming directly
onto the guard's head. The green, sticky goo stopped him right in his tracks.
Keena looked up to see that the person who'd dropped it was already gone. Keena
already knew who it had been, though, and she mentally thanked Stan while
strolling away.

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